I Hear the Call of the Wild
by Grand Phoenix
Summary: Thousands of years after the fall of Lady Debonair, in a time of prosperity and advancement, a Cephiro historian recites to his class the legend of the Knights of Prophecy who had come into their own and the Rune Gods that called out to them. [post-MKR2][liberal use of headcanon inside]
1. legere (to read)

**Notes1:** This was originally going to be a good-ish-sized short story (applied with very liberal doses of GP-patented headcanon, because I'm halfway through the MKR1 anime and just starting the MKR2 manga). However, this was written as being like a legend that's passed down after the ending of MKR2 regardless of which medium you are familiar with (anime or manga), and since it kind of emphasizes the repetition later on I figured it would be best to split this into five chapters: the beginning, the main "body" therein, and the ending.

 **Notes2:** This should be best read under the assumption that, given the ending to MKR1, MKR2 still happened but Cephiro and the rest of the realms were able to prosper without the Pillar system thereafter, presumably some thousands of years later. However, it should be noted that, although Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu are mentioned and only appear in the body of the work in the form of flashbacks (as befitting in the style of legends), whether or not they remained in Cephiro or were summoned back to Earth for the rest of their days is left open to interpretation.

 **Some minor notes:** Liberal headcanon aside, this piece draws heavy inspiration not just from the _World of Warcraft_ , but also Lionhead's _Fable_ series, primarily _The Lost Chapters_ edition with a sprinkling of _Fable 2_ (although it goes unstated, a lot of time has passed in this story, so therefore technology has hit a couple of advancement periods post-MKR2, whereas the _Fable_ series evolves to the point where guns trump over a magic system that is, as of _Fable 3_ , fading away from the world). The word 'draumir' comes from 'draumr', the Old Norse word for 'dream', and the basis of their occupation being the druids of the Emerald Dream from WoW. The term 'dreamwalk' refers to the teleportation spell druid players can use in _Legion_ to get to the Emerald Dreamway, although ironically I had conceived this as a term for causal, ontological purposes in my Naruto/Tales of Berseria fanfic epic, _Heart of Fire, Soul of Calamity_. The statement our unnamed narrator makes, about his memory as 'not what it used to be', is a direct reference to the same line that's mentioned in the opening scene of the first _Galaxy Fraulein Yuna_ OVA (based off the game series of the same name that was never brought to the US, although the dub for the anime is...meh). And lastly, the title comes from one of Beastmaster Rexxar's lines from _Heroes of the Storm_.

* * *

 **i.**  
 **legere (to read)**

Magic is the foundation of the world; where it courses not through the blood of man, it is in the shapeless soul. To come from nothing and return to nothing, it can only be answered not on a whim—for magic is Chaos, and therefore it is no one's master, for even when bonded it does not always perform at one's demand.

Magic, as the people of Cephiro have long since learned (and drawn to their own conclusion, for better or worse), and as the Knights of Prophecy have come to learn, is a frivolous creature. But when it is beckoned, in this dark hour, and it responds, it is a godsend: wonderful and terrible in its power. It is the reason why sorcerers are given so wide a berth between respect and awe, knowing their lives can be ended as they can be saved. It is why their number pales in comparison to soldiers and swords-for-hire.

This is where those comparisons end between the commonfolk, the military, and the Knights of Prophecy. This is where the divide begins, and where the Knights must come into their own.

Though it may be the fount of the soul and it may flow as blood in their veins, it is more a tool to be treated with severity and convenience than it is a gift. For a Knight, magic is their blood and their life. It is the bond ever changing. It is eternal, the Bond of Boundaries.

It is the Call of the Wild, and only a Knight may hear the Call when their magic wakens, though they do not know this. It is more than a kinship between man and the arcane, of the cosmos whose secrets have not wholly been unearthed but are being tirelessly studied to this day. It is a trinity between man and world and nature—that is, the nature of the world given Will by the Pillar that has been woven unto its fabric since time immemorial. Or so it had been, at least before the system had been abolished and gave way to arcanomancy.

Nevertheless, this is Balance, and it must be established.

And so it does, when the Call resounds: in the night, where it can only be heard. In those days the Knights of Prophecy had come at last into Cephiro during the period of tumult and sundering of earth and heaven, and these were Hikaru and Umi and Fuu, girls from another world as the legend foretold. They were given a Task from Master Pharle Presea to recover the much sought-after escudo, an ore that cannot be mended and broken and shaped by neither hammer nor anvil nor fire; and once its making was complete would it bring them one step closer to the end of their Quest: to topple the fallen high priest, Zagato, from his throne and restore the Princess Emeraude, the Pillar of Cephiro, to her rightful place whence the darkness will be banished.

The escudo was to be found at the Spring of Eterna; but these girls, mere hatchlings following a given path and not yet blossomed into Knighthood, had not yet come upon it. The Master Mage Clef had presented to them a creature, a peculiar white rabbit (and for the sake of clarity, we will call 'him'—him being the engendered noun these texts describe him as being—a rabbit) named Mokona, to guide them on their journey, for the Knights were young and soft and come from a time and place beyond the roads of the Spaces In-Between where wars, if fought at all, would be conducted on a global scale that may equal or be greater than the magical might Cephiro had ever or may ever see, and they knew little of fighting save in recreational sport. They would be lost without Mokona, and they would be snared in Zagato's grip and ushered the world to its end had they not heeded Clef's pleas to take flight and find safety in Presea's abode.

So on that day the Knights decided to rest, and Mokona, being ever resourceful, conjured for them the house to eat and shelter in away from the prying eyes of wandering beasts in search for their scent. The girls were weary from the long trek and were gladdened, and for the rest of the day they enclosed themselves within and endured refreshment. Then, when the stars wheeled high on the zenith and the moor grew still, they went to sleep.

Now you must forgive me, for as much as people say I have studied everything there is to learn of the Knights of Prophecy (or Doom, if you feel particularly cynical...or realist, I should say), the Rune Gods, and the marriage between the arcane and proto-druidism, my memory is not as it used to be. Part of what means being a historian is separating fact from the myth, the truth from the opinionated gossip and heresy you must have surely heard from Chizeta, Fahren, and Autozam. But there is one thing you must keep in mind, and it is neither lie or hyperbole or gossip and heresy; and it is that the Call of the Wild varies. Each Knight may hear it all the same, but what they experience may differ from each other.

Or, that is, what I have always been told. It's been a long time since the fall of the Lady Debonair, and much longer yet since a new Trinity of Knights of Prophecy have been needed. I have poured through accounts by Master Pharle Presea, Master Mage Clef, Dhal Lafarga, and Beastmancer Ascot, among many others, who have been related to them the story of how the Knights awoke the Rune Gods from their slumber and truly came into their own. Let me tell you that it is considered a miracle to heed the Call of the Wild and, upon waking, remember the germ that is the dreamwalk in full detail. This is not a mere Opening, as the Knights before them have, where they only have a scrap of the idea that they should go somewhere and seek out the Gods in their natural habits. It is not a case of them finding the Balance of the Trinity all Knights must struggle to maintain.

No. This was an _Awakening_ , a matter of _must_ and not _should_ , of _we are_ and not _we will_. Although you can argue, and I would not blame you for thinking so, that they only awoke due to having Mokona at their side, but the fact remains: their eyes were opened, and they were wakened at the same time the Rune Gods reached out to them.

Although the accounts differ, I've managed to piece a small, cohesive narrative together that documents what Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki, and Fuu Hououji experienced in the dreamwalk on the night of the Calling. It is by no means perfect; obviously you and I weren't there to know exactly what they said, but this what how it happened according to them and thereon by their constituents.


	2. vindr (wind)

**Notes1:** This story was on a single document and only went up to near the end of Fuu's chapter (being this one). Since it became longer than intended, I decided to split the character-centric portions into three chapters. However, in all fairness, I do have this habit of letting my mind wander and construct the further I go along with the story, even though the bare bones, the foundation, has been laid out ahead of time so there's the need to fill in the blanks, i.e. the story speaks for itself and I try to accommodate.

 **Notes2:** I had forgotten to mention in the last chapter, but given the events our nameless historian lays out to give his class a chronological context this universe would more or less be set in the manga adaptation; this is mainly because I wrote this as I was reading MKR1. On the other hand, this fanfic can be safely read under the assumption that it takes place after either the anime, manga, or game (I'm excluding the OVA because, from what I've seen, it's set in an alternate universe where Cephiro is intertwined with Earth, if only very loosely).

 **A very minor note:** I think the biggest travesty - and my biggest gripe - with MKR1 in general is: why wasn't the concept of the Knights' sisterhood carried over to the anime? I loved seeing Umi going from spoiled rich chick (who, understandably, would rather not have so great a role as 'Legendary Magic Knight' thrust upon someone of her age) to being larger than life while having that dash of smartass humor and commentary I'd equate to seeing in gangsters...but it's a very far-fetched comparison to make, as I have a fondness for trickster/slick types (and Umi is a far cry from both, though she has the most character development out of all the Knights).

 **Another note:** Although Umi is my favorite character, I would have to put Fuu as a second above Hikaru. Why? Because Fuu is a _gangster_ ; ditzy she might be at times and a nerd for RPGs (that's not an insult to her, that's a _compliment_ coming from someone who loves CRPGs, ARPGs and open-world RPGs), but the one moment in the manga that impressed me the most was her threatening to kill Caldina. I'm like 'LOL damn, this dork has _fangs!_ ' It's that one thing that sets Fuu above someone like, say, Ami Mizuno of _Sailor Moon_ , who, while similar to her in terms of personality, doesn't quite have as much the same drive to go so far as to outright imply let alone intend to murder an enemy in defense of her team.

* * *

 **ii.**  
 **vindr (wind)**

They heard the Call at night, when they were fast asleep. Mokona heard it, too, and with high little "Puu, puu!"s he hopped off the windowsill, crossed the floor, and leaped onto the edge of the bed. He waddled around to the side and came to a stop, staring at them with crinkled eyes and a benevolent, cherubic smile.

Whether or not the thought of waking them crossed his mind didn't matter. No one, nothing, would be able to find them in the house he conjured for them in the shadows of the moorland tucked away from the main road.

And they did not; the Wilds were upon the Knights of Prophecy, not a spell of compulsion, but by their own design. The dreamwalk had occurred at the same time, but this facet would be lost to time and history would be unable to pinpoint the exact moment the congruency emerged. However, if there was one thing scholars, animists, and the circles of draumirs that cropped up following the post-Pillar reconstruction could agree upon, it was deciphering the order in which the Knights became aware of the Rune Gods turned their Sight upon them.

Fuu was the last to open the ley line within her, not waiting even a minute to insist to Mokona that she allow Clef to give her the means to reach inside and call up the magic that would heal Umi—who had almost perished from Alcyone's ambush—and Hikaru—who went on the defense in response—of their wounds with the breath of the wind. It would come as a surprise to her the following morning at how easily she gave in to sleep, for the girls had taken to peering at shadows between the trees and then the scrubby dunes and buttes and hoodoos the deeper they pressed deeper into the moors toward the badland. Tonight she was sandwiched between them; she had intended to do so and managed, in that sweet, polite way that brooked absolutely no argument from Umi ("I said I'm fine, sis! If I didn't drop dead earlier, then I won't drop dead now!") and more encouragement from Hikaru ("Don't be shy! It's like a sleepover!" "It already is!" Umi groaned before rolling over just as Fuu let herself fall into the spot she was just in) got her spot. She had wondered before drifting off if they knew she wanted to be in the middle so as to keep them close to her where she could see them, for it was the closest to death they had ever been, and Fuu never wanted to feel so helpless and alone in this strange world without them by her side ever again. If they should wake from night terrors, she would be right there to assuage them.

But there were no nightmares to be had, not from Hikaru and Umi and neither from Fuu. Instead, Fuu awoke to the cry of a bird, deep and rising from the depths of its chest and rising up out of its throat. Her heart had leaped into her mouth at that moment, she stood up tall and straight and quivering like a rabbit ready to fly for the hills, and she whirled around to see where it was in the sky or its shadow was about to fall upon her. Instead she beheld a tree, so massive and thick across the trunk as to be mythological; it reminded her of the story of Yggdrasil, whose crown was green and was gifted with many boughs that touched the stars; its roots extended well and past the earth, to Urðarbrunnr and Hvergelmir and Mímisbrunnr. From this distance she could hold forth her hands and cup it between them, and she could scarcely marvel at its majesty were she to stand at its base. This tree, Yggdrasil or no, towered over snow-capped mountains wreathed in fog against a red and blue sky made dusky by a hidden sun (or the shimmering of its leaves) as a backdrop. It was not the most peculiar thing she had seen in Cephiro, for there were floating mountains and springs that existed in two-dimensional planes, but the sky put her in a position she was steadily becoming accustomed to, and that was being torn between her gut instinct and her heart. The former demanded she run for her life and hide, though the land was flat with a tall white-yellow scrub that went up to her knees. The latter, however, did not quail from the peculiar sky; on the contrary, she welcomed it, and felt a peace that made it seem as though she were drowning and made her head light.

So Fuu looked to the tree that was not Yggdrasil; and she gasped, for out of the sky came a creature whose wings beat slow and powerful, tossing winds that blew back the grass and stirred leaves and a curious dandelion fluff into the air. Yet the gusts did not blow her away. They should have, but she remained as she stood, and watched as the beast grew closer and closer, giving voice once more. It was indeed a bird, and indeed very large (but not so much as the tree). Its plumage was the dark green of forests untouched by industrial machines and white as clouds, its beak gold as the sun in colored Kodak photographs, and its talons as gilded as filigree on parchment; they were curved and wicked as scythes. It flapped one, two, three times, and kicking its legs out descended unto the ground a ways from her. It tucked its wings against itself and pointed its beak at her.

There was a jewel upon its brow between its eyes. Both were the same color as its feathers, but the gem caught the light. It sparkled in a way the wind blows through the trees and makes the shadows dash across the floor before settling. It was as though Fuu was staring into the sun itself and could not be blinded by it nor be rendered unto ash by the strength of its monstrous heat like poor Icarus and his wings. In hindsight, it would be foolish to turn her back on this fine, graceful creature of the sky, but it would also be foolish to keep her eyes on it and make it think she was challenging it and thus would stir into a rage.

It did not. It did not make any sort of angry movements at all.

It continued to stare at her, silent and unmoving.

 _There's no telling that if I turn away, it will come after me,_ she thought. _But it might react if I go toward it, with or without showing fear it might take advantage of. Then again, it might be friendly. It's certainly no ordinary bird._

No, not with a jewel on its forehead and being of such size it would put a great whale shark to shame. This was a beast one could ride on in fantasy books or role-playing games, like dragons or griffons; and wasn't this world just like that? Earning experience not through points by the skin of her teeth and the knowledge to counter the enemy's magic, their summons, and their advances? Learning how to use magic that was more than cheap parlor tricks for a laugh and pretending to saw in half the box the magician's participant was in? Birds like this were probably a dime a dozen somewhere in other parts of the world, just as there would be animals and creatures as alien and unknowable as Mokona.

But how different could they be from those on Earth? Magic was one thing to distinguish them from; it was what made Mokona and Fyula and Cresta unique. Fuu might be young, but even she knew that no matter where she was and how different beasts looked and adapted to their environment, their nature would never change—and animals were smarter than they let on.

 _What should I do?_

The bird cocked its head at her. It seemed almost…questioning.

 _What are you?_ She wanted to ask it, and before she had any notion of what she was doing her body moved.

She took a step forward. Then a second, and then a third.

Soon she was walking—slowly, so as not to startle it, and tentatively. The bird crowed softly and stood up on its talons, fully alert, but still it did not move even as she drew closer to it and she feared, irrationally but not without due cause, her heart really was going to pop out of her mouth or burst from her chest.

But then a curious thing washed upon her, one that should have surprised her but did not; and that her heartbeat slowed and the heat of fright got cool and calm. A spring did not come to her step but neither did it falter. She maintained her pace until she was standing right in front of the bird.

She looked up at it. It looked down at her.

She could see her reflection staring back wondrously in its eyes. They were deep pools of jade, just like the grass at her feet.

She stared, and it was as though she was falling, falling, the wind passing through her, the sky stretching all around her as a globe containing her therein. There was no land to catch her, no sea to slow the speed of her descent. There was only sky and cloud and grass.

Although the urge was strong and the sensation of her stomach's turning querulous yet, Fuu did not look away. Doing so was not an option, and so she stood and allowed herself to drop even deeper into the abyss. Her breath constricted; she was surprised there was any breath left in her at all. "Who are you?" she asked, voice steady. _What are you?_ was the unspoken question.

She did not think the bird would speak. In a way, it was silly of her to think she would talk to it and expect an answer; but it clicked its beak, once, and though it closed a voice could be heard—all around and inside her, clear and booming in the empty stretches. There was the hint of machinery lying underneath, not like gears turning in a clock but seamless as the lights on a computer starting up on its own. "Lo, child, for I am Windham the Machine of Wind, Phoenix of the Rounded Sea, Spirit of Cephiro."

"Wait! You're…a Rune God?" Fuu exclaimed. "A…Machine?"

"Aye. I am One of Three Runes-Upon-Making when the world was young. I was One when once the Roads were wrought and the Pillars bore them weight."

"But…you're a bird! You don't look like a machine."

"Thus is the form I have taken for thee. Your name has been written among the stars, and so I clothed thyself as a creature of the sea-made-round. 'Tis but a mantle you are beholden to."

"I…see. The destiny foretold my coming and that of my friends, so you made yourself a bird so you would be easy for me to recognize."

"Indeed."

"Ah, that makes sense. I think I would have a better time reconciling you as a bird than a flying fish."

"Though they are creatures of flight, they are not of my domain. 'Tis a gift Selece graced the sea-made-round when the Runes were finally carved and the Sphere enclosed from Chaos. It is only I and Rayearth may give breath to the land-made-flat and the sky-made-full with other such similar elementals of import. For this turn of the Wheel, I am made whole again, resplendent in the raiment of my glory."

"This isn't the first time the Magic Knights were called on?"

"Nay, it is not, and only the Void may know if this may indeed be the Final Doom wherewith the Magic Knights will cease to be an unavoidable necessity where all may seem lost."

Fuu nodded, digesting this information. "So it's possible, then," she began, "for there to be a time when the people of Cephiro can stand on their own even with the Magic Knights by their side."

"Where there is a Will, there is a Way. We shall guide them thenceforth with my brothers and their incarnations."

"Of course. Without the Pillar, Cephiro will fall. But…I don't know where you are. How will I find you?"

"Look for me in the sky where the crystals shine brightest, young woman from another world," said Windham, and leaned his head closer. "No cloud or rain or snow or foul demon will hide you from my Sight. There thou will find the answer thou seek."

"The answer," Fuu breathed, and once again her mind traced back to that singular question: Why her? Why her friends? They were only children. Even on the path to Knighthood, what could they accomplish that the people of Cephiro, learned in sword and sorcery and Will, could not?

"Yes," said Windham. "Thou will know why, and then thou will know what to do. This burden thou shan't carry alone."

 _A burden,_ Fuu thought. How much worse could it get than a brush with death?

 _So much worse,_ she reckoned. There was no telling what would await her on the road ahead.

Unbidden, without warning, she raised her hand and placed it flat upon Windham's jewel. It warmed to her touch, like a wind on a hot summer day.

The Rune God cawed. "Grow, my child!" he declared. "Grow! May your mind be vast and your heart be flourished. Find me, show me, and I shall see for thyself whether you are ready to mantle thee amidst the chilling dark." He glowed a soft, muted green, leaned into her hand, and locked her in his gaze. Her reflection was replaced with that of another face, long and gunmetal grey with yellow eyes and jade helm shaped in the fashion of his mantle. His raiment was like Yggdrassil, his shoulders sun-bright and water-white as bird feathers made damp with dew. He was ancient and he was new; he was asleep among the stars but he was awake and free among the skies, wild and unconstrained.

She had never seemed so small in her life. And yet she did not break.

Fuu stared back, entranced. She no longer felt like falling.

She caught the wind and flew, _flew_ , and that was all she knew.


	3. vain (water)

**Notes1:** Not much to add this time, except I expressed a depressing amount of disappointment upon learning that Nova and Lady Debonair are anime-exclusive characters and not part of the manga as I had hoped. Still, I can insist on hand-waving the story existing in any adaptation by saying that, in some alternate, they did exist in the manga. (Oh woe betide me!)

 **Notes2:** Umi is, hands down, my favorite character in MKR...and I usually don't always put the selfish, spoiled rich chick as a number one favorite when I'm perusing a fandom. One of my rules of thumb when it comes to enjoying a story is finding consistency with not only the plot but the growth a character experiences, and Umi is the one I've seen go through the motions the most: from expressing understandable doubt of the quest suddenly foisted upon her (by dint and prophecy) and a desire to go home to having to confront her demons (in the anime) and stepping up her game to take on the role as a Magic Knight. Likewise, this is the type of character that appeals to me a lot more than, say, someone like Hikaru, who has a pretty optimistic outlook on things and wanting to be a Knight right from the get-go. However, that's not to say Hikaru is a bad character; I do like those types, but I need to see them pretty much go through brimstone and hellfire in terms of suffering to otherwise balance out the good cheer, so in that regard they would use that opportunity to (try, at least, this series isn't _Madoka Magica_ ) pick themselves and learn from it (or regress, either as a moment of crisis or a descent into darkness that leads to villainy).

Also, I've always thought each Knight had the potential to be the Leader of the group, but Hikaru is given that position kind of by default since in Japan red (especially on an armband) is associated with leadership. Fuu is the brains, but she's shown to be wary of outsiders even after they've established they're not in it for themselves or for Zagato (and she only seems to get better when Ferio gets it through to her); on the other hand, she questions everything (doubting, yes, but it makes sense when you're in a world that's not your own) and is quick to put two and two together. Favoritism aside, I would say Umi has the most potential of the three to be Leader prior to her arc as she also calls everything into question...but even after she grows and stops jumping the gun so much, she's got a bit of that hot-headed streak to her. Therefore it falls to Hikaru to be Leader because of that optimism...but I would also say her being _too kind_ is a detriment, a weakness that's been exploited and nearly gets the others killed a couple times. So that's my assessment of the three.

 **A minor note:** I've been meaning to get the chapters titled in the manner of Old Nordic etymology, so you have this being called 'Water' and the previous being 'Wind' in the same language. Unfortunately, I couldn't do the same for the first chapter, 'Legend', so instead I settled on the gerunde of _legere_ (to read), which comes from the feminine noun use of the word _legendus_ in Latin (which comes from the medieval Latin word _legenda_ , (to be read), which, according to the website Dictionary, is called 'because [it is] appointed to be read on respective saints' day'".

* * *

 **iii.**  
 **vain (water)**

Mokona watched Fuu and saw the way her face rippled with emotion: of a slow, childlike fear of the unknown; then grown soft with curiosity, her eyes flitting rapidly back and forth beneath the darkness (beyond the veils of reality); and then, finally, it slackened, became peaceful, and then soon her chest rose and fell with steady, comforting rhythm. He patted her on the head—no action, no matter how gentle or how rough, would pry her from the grip of the Machines. They were in deep, cocooned in sleep.

There was grumbling to his right, and so Mokona looked in that direction. Umi had insisted earlier the previous day that she was all right; she had been healed to the fullest extent of the newfound magic Fuu had been blessed with. Yet Fuu would have none of it, denied her the right to have the middle of the bed all to herself, and settled in that particular spot without a word before Umi could form a proper rebuttal. In the end she relented, but more so because she was weary from being inches away to crossing death's threshold than an exasperation of the tit-for-tat that would never have gotten any steam.

Umi muttered again, too low and incoherent for anyone (had they been awake) to make out. Mokona's ears perked up, and turned his head to her with a benevolent smile. Umi was not smiling; in fact, her face was pinched, her brows furrowed, a frown upon her lips. Her head tossed back and forth, as if warding something off.

Umi growled, baring her teeth in an exasperated snarl.

Where once there had been incisors, they were now pointed fangs, long and painted (although certainly not as long as a vampire's; even Hikaru would be hard pressed to say they were not that sharp).

Umi scurried over to her until he was leaning right up into her face. The light of the moon played on the jewel upon his forehead.

The light of the sun played on the water all around her in the dreamwalk. Every which way she turned, left, right, and all around in a circle, there was water everywhere as far as she could see; and here she stood upon an islet made of sand and shale and broken bits of seashell and clam shell and oyster shell and sediment-encrusted stones dredged up to the surface from unseen but most certainly very powerful undercurrents. The sun was at its zenith, riding the skirt of the horizon, bathing the sky in a swath of purple velvet made scarlet the closer it was to the edge of the sea.

It would've been quite the pleasant view to enjoy, to drink it in and find one's Zen. Peace, after all, could sometimes be found from within; that was the one thing material treasures couldn't replicate. Peace of mind, her parents said, came when you least expected it in the most unlikely places.

Well, they did have that last thing right. Being stuck in the middle of nowhere with only the sea and a lone, tall palm tree for company was very unlikely.

It was scary at first, waking up alone, stranded, and wondering just how in the world she was going to get back to Cephiro when she didn't know how to swim. Umi had tried calling out for Fuu, and then Hikaru, then Mokona, and finally anyone…but she quickly realized how stupid she sounded and, for a long time (or so she assumed, for the sun never moved from its spot), she resigned herself to sitting in the shade underneath the tree. Then she had grown bored and restless from doing even that, and from drawing doodles and nonsense patterns and writing random mathematical equations in the same, and so Umi got up and walked around the islet once, twice, and after the fifth time she simply did away with keeping track of the number and kept on walking.

Why was she here, she wondered? What had brought her to this remote little island? Was it part of Cephiro? Was it a spell Alcyone put on her, a—what was it called? Oh, a dead man's switch, as a last-ditch effort to strike down at least one Magic Knight? Or perhaps it was something of Lord Zagato's mien that only he had the willpower to draw on?

For a while Umi thought this, shivered though the breeze was warm, and railed at the sky for Zagato to come and finish what he started; was he so scared of her that he couldn't even man up and finish off one little girl? Or perhaps, she considered with mounting horror, he was man enough, and did find them. Found them and decided, as punishment, he would pluck her from their hiding spot and drop her somewhere they wouldn't know where to look and couldn't find her. This was a world that was founded and depended on the power of one's will, and up until now Umi still couldn't believe she had gotten involved in the whole mess of magic, automated gods, flying creatures, and saving the world from a fallen man of the cloth. Her will had been weak, stubborn, unchanging. To still be alive and with magic coursing through her body was nothing short of a miracle.

So Umi yelled at Lord Zagato again, more fervently and desperately than before, and it was only after no such response came did all the energy drain out of her.

She spent the rest of the time dawdling from one spot of the islet to the other, staring off into the distance. Sometimes she would look toward the frozen sun and shade her eyes from its rays, thinking what lay beyond the horizon. Sometimes she would stare up at the tree and count how many lines there were in its massive fronds. By that point the fear was gone, almost as if it had been washed away by the gently rolling tide. There was worry, but it had mostly been replaced by a calmness Umi didn't know she was capable of feeling. She had thought it had been resignation of the fate that awaited her, of the potential starvation that would slowly, achingly follow…but surely there couldn't be peace to be had in such an idea, could there? No, of course not. How could anyone make peace with that?

There had to have been a reason, right? There must be.

Perhaps Princess Emeraude called her, with some sort of intervention spell, if indeed Zagato was trying to get a leg up on her.

It was this thought that put her at ease, made her believe that she could extend her will not only to an insignificant person such as Umi Ryuuzaki but to Hikaru and Fuu as well. Her steps became a little more confident, did not drag so much on the ground.

She did not think herself stranded anymore. She felt safe, and as tropically weird as this place was (it reminded her of a Tatsuro Yamashita album cover she would find at the local strip mall back in Tokyo), it was peaceful. It was, indeed, the kind of place to center herself, become one with the universe and all that mumbo jumbo.

It would have been the perfect view…if it wasn't for the dragonflies buzzing all around her.

"Come on…Go…Get away," Umi growled, swatting at them left and right. But no matter how hard she swung they always came back. They would light upon her shoulders, her arms, even her hands, and with each harsh swipe they would scatter and fly about in the air before they made another attempt.

"Get off me!" she said more loudly. "Shoo! Shoo! Leave me alone!" She flailed around in a circle, sending the dragonflies off her, this time going up toward the tree and out of sight. "That's right, you gnats! Get lost! Go…I dunno, make like a banana and split! Something like that! Maybe go back to your mom or dad, whoever takes care of you! I've got bigger things to worry about!"

The dragonflies came back down again, swarming together, and flew away from her heading for the sea. Into what her father called the great blue yonder, the unknown.

Umi raised one arm above her head and saw them off with a wave. "Buh-bye now! Goodbye! Adios! Sayonara! Arrivederci! Have a safe trip!" _And don't come back!_ She wanted to add, but saying goodbye in four different languages was good enough. She was most definitely not going to buzz back at them!

All that good cheer and imagination vanished instantly at the sound of a low, subterranean roar that shook the rocks at her feet and tossed the fronds of the palm tree to and fro. _What was that?_ Umi asked herself, and before she had the chance to look around the sea began to lurch.

 _Lurch_ —once, twice, three times, and each ripple of the waves grew stronger and rose higher, sped right for the islet with increasing momentum.

Something dark and sinuous, carved thick with muscle, emerged from the depths. The air was rife with a sound like white water rapids wending its way across the Grand Canyon.

Umi's heart plunged into her stomach and bungee-jumped right into her throat. _I'm dead,_ she thought, shaking her head in disbelief. _I am so dead._ "I-I'm sorry," she told the shape. "I didn't mean it, okay? I'm sorry! Please don't eat me. I-I'll do anything! Promise!" She raised her hands in front of her and backed away, but still the shape kept coming, still it grew larger, taller. She swallowed, throat clicking, and kept going.

Her back hit the tree, and Umi watched as the thing materialized into something more recognizable and terrifying than any creature she had ever seen in all the pop-up books and picture books she read as a little girl. It was a dragon of Western design, with scales as deep and blackened blue as the water obscured in shadow from its bulk. Its throat, crest, and upright plates along its spine were white inlaid with a yellow pale as the sun at its back. Her eyes widened at the crystal-flecked claws that scraped onto the shore; they were as big as her and just as wide. Her eyes bulged more as it spread its wings and dripped cascading waterfalls from its webbed membranes before it folded them neatly against its flanks.

Black specks darted this way and that beside it, and upon reaching land they swarmed forward and flitted all over Umi. One of them flitted onto her hand, but this time she didn't brush it off. This time she raised it and stared dumbly.

It was a dragonfly, and it stared back with yellow eyes too large for its small head.

"Thou art as much of a handful as the others that have come before you, young woman from another world," said the dragon. Its voice was masculine and cavernous like the trenches beneath the waves, and so strong was its timbre that Umi whipped her head around so that she looked straight into his eyes. They were yellow like the dragonfly's, and they bore down on her like twin magnifying glasses catching the right angle for the sun to shine on. "I see nothing has changed."

"A handful?!" Umi exclaimed. "Now wait just a minute here, I am not a—okay, maybe not a handful, but I have rules to abide by!"

"Rules?" asked the dragon.

"Yes! Rules! Standards!"

"Standards?" He cocked his head at her.

"Yes! And needs! I have a ton of needs!"

"Needs," he echoed.

"And questions! Tons and tons of questions! Like, why am I here? Why did I, of all people, get dragged from the comfort of my home (that being my home world, buddy!), get caught up in a quest to save a world (that being Cephiro), and then somehow, some way, end up out of my second home (that being the shelter Mokona made us) waaaaaay over here in…I have no idea, but let's say your domain, Mister…! Oh." She paused, breathing heavily from her charades. "Oh, that's right. I don't even know your name."

"I have gone by many names and many titles, child, but I have been and ever will be known as Selece. I am the Machine of the Sea, the Dragon of the Shapeless Deeps, Spirit of Cephiro."

Umi bobbed her head knowingly. "Mister Selece, then! I am in your domain—wait. Did you just say 'Machine'? As in, you're _a Rune God?_ " She stood straight up. "Are you for real?!"

"I am indeed, and this is my domain. I am One of Three Runes-Upon-Making, when the Roads were made from the Void and the Pillars conceived from the light of Creation. This is but a mantle I wear for thee, the germ of my thought and the germ of your thought and the germs of all thoughts that have preceded you in ages past ere after the Sphere was made Whole and barred Chaos from the sky-made-full and the land-made-flat."

"You mean…you've been waiting for me? All this time? Since…forever?"

"Aye. It was not there when the abyss was silent, but when it yawned and spilled forth the stars I saw it so and knew your doom. We have seen all dooms, my brothers and I. We will carry them henceforth, through fire and war, with weapons barred; no recall or intervention will override my standard operating procedures even if it were mandatory."

"Meaning," Umi deduced in a far-away voice, "the prophecy. We can't go home until it's been fulfilled."

"That is the truth."

Umi felt faint. She swayed on her feet and, just barely, caught herself from sliding down the tree. "But…But I'm nobody! I've never fought anyone in my life…and for my life…until now! How do you expect me to do something like saving the world and all its people? I'm not a Knight! I'm not…I'm not ready yet!"

Selece hummed; it sounded more like a dog growling, or a cat purring, but most of all, Umi thought, it sounded like machines rumbling in the bowels of a warehouse factory. Not loud as she had assumed, but soft and quiet. Somehow, it was soothing. It was the opposite effect of what she wanted to feel, but hearing the dragon-that-is exude such a familiar, mechanical sound comforted her, though the weight upon her heart and soul was cumbersome. "Nay. Nay, you are not. But you have been called here for a reason…a reason that has not gone entirely unfounded. You have shown me potential. You show me willingness—"

"Willingness to what? To murder?"

"To _survive_ ," Selece emphasized, not minding the interruption, "and in order to survive, sometimes you must do things you would not even consider in your waking life. There have always been monsters, long before man and spirit became manifest from the abyss, and they will continue to exist even after the Pillar is restored."

"So if there were monsters before we came here and people moved on afterwards, what's the point in us being here? What good is someone like me going to accomplish?"

"You are more than what you think you are, young lass," said Selece. He bent his long neck down, down, until his head was touching the ground; it cast the entire islet in shadow, but Umi did not seem to notice. Her eyes were solely on the jewel on his crest, which exuded a light like the sun sinking beneath the horizon. She could see her reflection therein, as well as the blank metal face clothed in the finery of the manner of the serpent he was fashioned to be. It took her breath away, rooted her where she stood, and knew then and there that this beast, this god of unfathomable might, could snatch her up in his jaws and swallow her whole.

He did not. "I am more than thou think I am," he continued. "I am Selece! I am judge, I am jury, and I am executioner, and I see in thine eyes you have room for growth; such is the way of youth. So learn! Grow! Walk the lonesome road that is not lonesome with thy brothers and thine incarnations and see for thyself what the world has to offer."

"And just how exactly how am I supposed to reach you? I can't swim! And let's say I do find you; you're not just going to accept me as your partner right away, are you?"

Selece opened his mouth in a twisting, snarling grin. "See? You are smart, little one. You have potential."

"That's great, but you didn't answer my question."

"I have already told you what to do. Walk. Listen to the lay of the land, the birds in the trees, and the fish in the seas. Hear what they have to say. Think for yourself, but also think of those that speak to you. Decide, and go from there. There you will find your answers, and when you have them, come to me! Come to me where the dark is coldest, and I shall decide for thyself whether or not you are worthy of my mantle."

Umi frowned. "That's a lot to ask for."

"It is much to do."

She sighed dramatically. "You gods never seem to make this easy, do you?"

"I never said it would be," Selece added, commiserative. "Nothing ever is."

"I figured that much. I guess I'll just have to find out for myself."

"And so you shall." He nudged his head to her, closer, closer, until his jewel filled all of her vision and his cold breath which was glacial was upon her skin and did not feel glacial. It was comfort and she was comforted. In the shadow of his raiment there was safety, there was serenity, there was clarity unlike she could find in the shade of the trees and the shade of a roaring fire. There was nothing to fear but fear itself, and that thought outweighed the nagging worry of the unknown that precipitated the fear that would germinate as a seed and grow into so much more.

She wanted to hold onto that, and not let go.

With little warning, Umi reached forth and raised a hand to Selece's gem. She touched it, and there was only the sensation of water—rushing, calming, whitewater, seawater, nothing short of purification but wild, non-conforming, twisting, endless. It was as black as the heavens on a moonless night and bright as the foam that accompanies the tide at high rise, churning a monotonous, age-old cycle of destruction and renewal.

Umi closed her eyes. She fell forward, but in reality did not. She sank into the abyss, but still she stood.

There was only weightlessness, neither sinking nor buoyancy, and that was all she knew.


	4. fūrr (fire)

**Notes1:** Ah, Hikaru. I've been meaning to talk about her for a while, although in all honesty I've intentionally made the chapters go in order of Fuu/Umi/Hikaru from the very onset of this little tale. Most of my opinion on Hikaru can be deferred to my notes on Umi in the previous chapter, so there is not much else I can say about her. Hikaru's archetype - being that of a cheerful girl with an optimistic outlook on life - doesn't always catch onto me, or, at the very least, not right away like Umi would. In a way, I have a problem with those types because they're usually in the role of the female main character (as Hikaru is, being the girl who is color-coded red and, as mentioned before, designated the Leader of the three-band team due to the Japanese association with that particular color and _not_ , say, anarchism and Nazism like the West would) and, from my experience, are always stuck in a sort of rut where she is always The Heart, they are ever hopeful and idealistic and abhor having to resort to violence to solve a crisis or stop a villain who sometimes may be beyond redemption through words or an action that may cause them to submit. This is why I like it when such wide-eyed idealists are forced to do (what they believe to be is) the unthinkable and commit what amounts to as a mercy kill, and therefore as a result undergo the mental aftermath of what she has done. This is why I would take someone like Yuna Kagurazaka from the _Galaxy Fraulein Yuna_ series over Nanoha Takamachi from _Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha_ to grow and learn from an incident and still, in a way, remain being The Heart.

(However, I should mention that Yuna only does what she does (to prevent spoilers, but on the other hand, it's been twenty years; this is just for people that have never seen the anime or played/watched the games on YouTube/Nico Nico Douga) in the OVA, whereas Nanoha...has nothing to show she had to kill another person with her own two hands; if memory serves me correctly, the most she's ever done is wallop the hell out of Subaru and Teana, her students, in _StrikerS_ for being reckless and wanting to teach them a lesson because she almost died from her own recklessness in the timeskip between A's and StrikerS, which you briefly see in one episode. Even after Jail and his loyalist Numbers are defeated, they are not dead, only incarcerated. This is one thing about Nanoha as a character that bothers me so much, and that's why I like to write characters like her in situations where she _suffers_ and has to don the Jade-Colored Glasses; or, at the minimum, make her more morally grey. Grey!Nanoha would be of a lighter shade, so taking her to the extent of Homura Akemi in _Madoka Magica_ (and not, say, Chikane Himemiya from _Kannazuki no Miko_ , although YMMV on 'that' scene) would make not only a very Dark Grey but almost borderline Black, but that depends solely on how you would interpret - and whether or not you agree with - Homura's actions in _Rebellion_.)

This is not ultimately a bad thing for female main characters (and side characters) to remain that way; it is, more or less, a pet peeve of mine, depending on the character. Maybe it's because I spent most of my teenage years as an angsty, pessimistic, angry brat on antidepressants, but I did like how after MKR1 the Knights suffered to some degree (to the point where I'm convinced MKR2!Umi has pretty much sworn off romance _for life_ , which is surprising since her life's goal was to be a bride, and Hikaru coming to grips that she became a Knight...at the cost of putting Emeraude out of her misery) and they grow from that. It's the kind of development I wish Nanoha had post- _StrikerS_ and into the ViviD arc ( _War Record Force_ may as well be cancelled and retconned out of the franchise, in lieu of all that backlash), and that's why I wrote her as more jaded and antiheroic in my older fanfics.

 **Notes2:** In spite of the metaphysical and cosmological stuff that gets mentioned a lot in my stories (especially the recent ones, but I'm a sucker for worldbuilding), I don't really read too much into them, although they are very interesting to me and have been a part of what made me want to be an aspiring writer since I was little (same with conspiracy theories, post-apocalyptic fiction, and the many ways a world can end, although that first never latched on so firmly as the second and third). In retrospect, the conversation between Umi and Selece about nothingness is inspired by Ginnugagap in the Gylfaginning, the Eddaic text recording Nordic cosmogony, and the talk between Hikaru and Rayearth touches upon the Buddhist concept that time is an illusion, as well as the ancient Hindu cosmological idea that the universe is always undergoing cycles of creation, destruction, and rebirth (this is similar to the concept of eternal return/recurrence, although the Hindu idea of eternal return has each cycle - the turn of the Wheel, as the Rune Gods postulate - as lasting 4,230 million years).

 **A very, very minor note:** I hadn't expected this story to tackle themes like this, but that's my fault for initially going off a mental outline that the story would be recited in class, many years from now, as a legend that people aren't too sure about the exact details anymore. This is my criticism toward it due to the fact that Fuu so readily accepts her Quest to become a Magic Knight...but this can resolved in a way that, being the smartest of the band, she would fall more in line to do what must be done, just as Hikaru would, whereas Umi would take much more convincing and in-your-face showing to sway her.

I also must attribute the fact that listening to DAGOTHWAVE on YouTube and getting back into reading Michael Kirkbride's texts on _The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind_ \- especially the dubiously canon _C0DA_ texts - played heavily into the shaping of the story's later chapters. As much as I love the lore (and how much it bends my mind trying to understand half of what he's written), I have yet to bring myself to fully immerse myself in the actual game itself because _combat mechanics suck!_ Another minor inspiration also comes from _Spec Ops: The Line_ , but I have never played that game outside of it deconstructing the action plots often prevalent in first-person shooter games...and whether the player is truly a hero. And last but not least, Rayearth's ruminations on the validity of prophecy comes from _World of Warcraft_ , most specifically in the way the expansion _Warlords of Draenor_ breaks away from the absolute certainty that a prophecy/vision must come to pass and that, come _Legion_ and the _Chronicles_ books, possibilities are not always guaranteed to happen (which is why I cast the actuality of the comic 'Son of the Wolf' happening into question, given the revelations regarding the Void and the Void Lords).

* * *

 **iv.  
** **fūrr (fire)**

Now Mokona watched as Umi became relaxed, the stress sloughing from her face like melted snow in daylight, and settled beneath the covers with the ease of a serpent coiling upon itself on a branch. Whatever had been going on between the planes must have ended, so he was glad that she was not being disturbed anymore. The girl had a lot of energy, and it would do no good if her sleep was hindered.

He patted her on the head, careful not to apply too much pressure that might wake her. Then he pitter-pattered over to the left, past Fuu's head, and plopped himself right behind Hikaru's, where he bent low and stared at all the red hair that had come undone from her braid as the girls were turning in for the night. Unlike the others she was on her side, curled up, and having dragged as much as she could of the sheets across her body; it was a wonder Fuu and Umi had any to themselves at all, but one can't help what they do when she is amidst the throes of slumber and dreams.

Sometimes one can be too curious for their own good, even with the best of intentions.

Although there was a threshold to such desires, Hikaru briefly noted, as she stared upon the endless expanse of desert sprawling before out before her. She wasn't sure how she got here; she was very certain the last thing she remembered was falling backward onto the bed, stretching out, and closing her eyes. Then, when she had opened them, she had found herself to be…was it Cephiro?

Hikaru hummed to herself and stared across the land, pondering. They couldn't have gone that far into the moorlands, could they? No, that couldn't be it. There were no buttes or tableaus or balancing rocks in sight, nor ridges or tables or tors or inselbergs in sight, nothing that would suggest to her she was still in the forest where they had camped for the night. It was just sand, sand, and even more sand, under a sky that was neither sunrise nor evening. Cast into eternal dusk or eternal dawn she couldn't say; it seemed the sun itself was frozen in time, though there was a breeze slight enough to stir the sands into dance.

There were planets in the sky. Moons. Stars. Some were close to the earth, with rings around their bodies. Others were far away and clear impressions reflected from the light. It reminded Hikaru of all the colorful and wonderfully bizarre pulp science-fiction novels she had seen in the library: old stories from America that had made a big splash and inspired many aspiring authors to follow the leader. One of which came to mind was a novel called _Dune_ , by (and Hikaru searched her memory for the name) Frank Herbert, in which it took place on a desert setting just like this. She never did get to check it out, but being here brought the memory back into full clarity and instilled in her a desire to peruse the fantasy and science-fiction sections when she returned to Tokyo.

So what was there to do? Where she was to go? Hikaru looked around. This couldn't be a trap. It didn't feel like one, and what would Zagato gain by ripping her from her friends and dropping her in the middle of nowhere? Dark Lords like him wanted to deal with their enemies personally, when all options were exhausted and all bets were off, and this was anything but; there were still his lackeys to contend with! Then she thought if, maybe, Princess Emeraude could have brought her here…but again, for what purpose? What would be the point in singling just her out when Umi and Fuu were just as important and needed in the know? Even so, was it possible she still had enough willpower to summon them here from Cephiro? What if she had expended the last of her strength and now abided in the prison Zagato kept her in?

Hikaru was thinking of this and didn't realize that as she did so she had been walking aimlessly in one direction. Toward where she couldn't guess, and the silence was but a trifling uncomfortable to put up with; but at the same time it kept her grounded from thinking a bit too erratically, the twilight air was neither biting nor blistering on her skin. The atmospheric was a balm—contrite but soothing, and that was healing enough to put a spring in her step (but not too springy, for though the dunes were small they could, by her accidental wandering, cave in and tumble down and make a nice girl-sized lump out of her) and a drive to keep moving.

But to where?

Hikaru found that answer when she had looked back in the direction she had been facing, after spending some time bereft of her thoughts.

In the distance, there was a tall hill of black rock. The base and the land surrounding it was sandy, but closer to the top it had turned fallen away and became hard and barren. Hikaru blinked and did a double take. Then she shook her head, leaned forward, and squinted. The dune was glowing, soft and orange like the embers of a campfire that had all but been burned away.

A creature sat on top of it. She couldn't tell what kind it was, save that from what she saw it was tall and slim.

Her feet scraped to a stop. At the same time, the beast turned its head and looked at her. Found her gaze and held it.

It felt as though she was being put under a microscope to be studied. It was akin to being a fly trapped in amber and struggling futilely, uselessly, to be free of it as the predator comes closer to consume it and be made full. It was as though someone had flipped open the book of ages, discovered her entry, and peeled back all the layers of her character as a knife does to an onion.

Hikaru froze. The sun bore down on her. She thought, in that moment, if she had been a lesser creature, she would have been set on fire and be blown away by the wind.

Somehow, by some miracle, she was still standing.

"Young woman of another world, come closer and parley with me," said the beast. It was slow, whispery, but no less deeply masculine and all-encompassing as the desert. Yet there was an underlying hint of machinery in its voice: of Coleman lanterns being clicked on; of butane lighters setting the coals nestled beneath the grill to flame; of a solar panel gaining warmth and power beneath the might of the sun on a blue summer day. It was quiet, subtle; Hikari would never have noticed if not for the faintest of kinetic clicks and mechanical humming on the edge of its voice. "Come. I have words for thee."

Hikaru didn't waver. She took one step, then another, and another.

She was walking.

She seemed to walk a very long time, her footsteps trailing behind her in the sand. Each time she looked up at the dune it appeared no closer than it had been before, and she wondered if she would ever reach it. She wondered, very briefly, if this was indeed a trap. But the beast made no sign to get up and move, move and attack; it simply waited and watched her make the journey.

It came to an end when her feet touched the black rock—volcanic rock, she realized, when she sensed the steady, molten heat lingering in the cracks beneath the earth. She took a step back, hesitating, and tilted her head back to where the beast sat.

He was no longer looking at her, and adjusted his position so that all four paws were splayed across the ground. That, however, was not what caught her breath. He was…a lion? No, it looked too small and slender to be one, although his body was covered in a fine, long coat of bright red fur. His legs were thin and his paws were not so thick, either; rather, they were canine, especially in the way his nails were huge and like carved bone. The analogy fell apart when she took in the shape of his head—long and rectangular, with triangular dog ears, a lupine nose, and a silver horn that curled in a crescent in the middle of his forehead.

He twisted his head around and peered at her with golden eyes tinged scarlet. His ears twitched. His tail thumped. "You have come. That is good."

"Who are you?" Hikaru asked.

"I am Rayearth, the Machine of Fire, the Lion of the Flourishing Earth, One of Three Runes-Upon-Making, the Spirit of Cephiro. I have and shall always be Rayearth ere after the Final Doom has come and gone with the turning of the Wheel, as is deemed by Chaos."

"You're a Rune God," she breathed, and rocked back on her feet. She caught herself, shook herself to wakefulness. "You really are!"

"I am, though I still sleep within thine shrine, waiting for thee. It shall be a time yet before you are ready for me. Ever is the road to prosperity arduous and seeming out of reach, and ever is the heart soft and malleable."

"I have Umi and Fuu with me, and Mokona, too. They'll help me see this journey through to the end."

"You are so certain…but how can you know for sure? Foul is the hatred the fallen one has for thee and thine; even here, between realities, I can taste it—a bitter brew left to ferment long in the light. When at last his hand is empty and naught else is drawn, only then will he reveal himself and fight. Fight, and may lie broken at your feet."

"Zagato has to be stopped. We won't let him destroy Cephiro."

"You say that, but there is no guarantee you will win. There is never a promise in a prophecy." Rayearth turned his head toward the desert. "My brothers and I…we have seen all dooms. They are written in the stars that proliferate infinitely among the cosmos. They are written in the antimatter of cosmic inflation: that which is designated Chaos. They are written in the dark matter of the universal composition of the Realm of Cephiro: that which is designated Void. They are written in the matter of the physical plane of the Realm of Cephiro, in the sea-made-round, the land-made-flat, the sky-made-full: that which is designated Time, the Illusion-Made-Manifest. But you must remember, Hikaru Shidou,"-and Rayearth craned his head up so that his eyes locked on hers once more—"what is written can be ignored. What is written on stone can be destroyed and rebuilt again—and destroyed again, ad infinitum, until there is naught be dust and ashes of the hundred thousand millennia of potential, of possibility, that could have been in platonia. Nature can only be tamed to an extent; to do so wholly is to subdue it, limit it, hinder it…and that, too, is nature. It simply is."

Hikaru blinked slowly. The information had come sudden, like a lark in flight, like a shark on the hunt, like the first spark of fire being brought into existence, and it seeped into her brain blow by blow as a hammer does to a nail. Then it settled, soaked, and became one with her. "So you're saying," she started tentatively, "we'll fail?"

"I did not say you shall, that you are going to. I say that it is possible. However, it is within my prerogative and those of my kin that we assure the continuation of Cephiro's existence from internal and external influences culminating the Sphere."

"The Sphere?"

"The World That Is. This Realm."

"And the Pillar? What about Princess Emeraude?"

"You will save it and free the lady fair of her burden."

She brightened. "Really?!"

"Aye," said Rayearth. "That you shall. But you and your sisters must find us first: I and Selece and Windham, scattered throughout the Realm. Between the sky-made-full and the sea-made-round thou shall seek me, uncover me, and there I will judge thee the worth of your heart's content. 'Tis a road you share but a road also you must tread alone. Neither Dragon nor Phoenix can encroach upon that jurisdiction."

"And when I see you, you'll look like this?" Hikaru gestured to his lupine form.

He glanced down at himself. "Why, yes. You shall see me as such until your trial is complete, regardless of the outcome."

"But you're a wolf! A big, fluffy wolf!" And before Rayearth could speak, Hikaru got down on her knees and took one of his paws in her hand. "Look at you! I'm surprised you're not even bigger, since you're a god!"

Now it was his turn to blink. "Ah," he said. "That is because I have girdled myself in this clothing to your liking. 'Tis not my true form you gaze upon."

"Your true form's a robot, isn't it? I can tell!" Hikaru added, when Rayearth picked his head up. "I can kinda see it in your eyes."

"Aye, it is indeed my true form…but that is not the form that which I wear when I walk between the planes. Verily I am a lion…but I am alone among thy brothers where it concerns the donning of the genetic constitution of the creatures that inhabit the Sphere and ensure the fruitfulness of the Wheel's survival."

"The Wheel?"

"The turn of a cycle of progress and repetition in an entity's life; a planet's, a star's, a universe's…or, to be more narrowly specific, a person's for clarity's sake." Rayearth flexed his claws so that Hikaru could rub her fingers along the fur between them. "You are not the first of the Fated Ones to come from beyond Chaos…nor, perhaps, shall you be the last. It is not often my form changes in conjunction with the psyche of my bonded Knight. I have peered into your heart, gazed into your mind, and saw comfort with the beasts of all manners in the Wild. It is an admirable trait you possess…but do not be hasty! That alone is not enough to convince me you are ready to wield me," so he told her, when Hikaru looked at him.

Her face fell. "Oh. I guess it won't be that easy."

"Nay. 'Twould be an insult to my kin, thy predecessors, and yourself were I to bequeath my power so readily. The heart is the definition of clay; if it should be baked too long, it will harden and crack. If it should not sit long enough, it will fall apart. So walk, Hikaru! Walk for me and see the world for what it is and what it must be. Decide for yourself what must be done; and if you must commit to, do so unwaveringly. For if you hesitate, it may surely mean your downfall and all those you love."

"I won't let that happen! I'm going to become a Magic Knight and rescue Princess Emeraude! I—no, my friends and I are—are going to save Cephiro! We'll show you and Selece and Windham we mean it!"

"I know you will," said Rayearth. He did not react, nor seem to mind, when Hikaru let go of his paw and leaned her body against him, or when she grabbed his fur in twin, gentle handfuls and laid her head between them. He curled his tail around her. "You will be a hero, in the end. Your name, and the names of all your friends, will be remembered throughout the ages.

"But there is but one question I must ask you, as I have asked the predecessors that have come before you," he added. "All that I ask is that whatever conclusion you reach, you will tell at your journey's end."

"What's that?" Hikaru asked, looking upon Rayearth.

"Do you feel like a hero yet?"

 _A hero?_ Did not a hero consist of a person being of humble origin and being sent on a Task, a Quest, to restore the lawful order of the world lest it fall into danger and destruction beyond repair? She had been summoned here, quite out of the blue, and had been expressly told by someone who was very well the moral integrity as much as she was the structural integrity of the world that they had to save it? Even if they were given the option to go back to Earth, would it really be within her right to abandon it in its darkest hour, not out of a desire to see home again but because of who she was: a child with a family who were versed in swordplay and nothing more martial than that?

Hikaru frowned at those questions. No. No, she could not do that even if Clef showed up literally out of nowhere and told her she could leave right this second.

But that wasn't what Rayearth was asking. He wanted to know from her mouth to his ears, plainly and clearly: _Do you feel like a hero yet?_

"No," Hikaru told him. "Not yet, anyway. My friends and I have only just started this journey; we've still yet to bring back the escudo Presea needs to make our weapons. But once we get them and go our way, we'll be more like heroes then! We'll be one step closer to waking you and your brothers and stopping Zagato! I just know it!"

The wolf's ears flickered. "So that is your answer. Very well. I shall ask you again, when all is said and through." He returned his attention to the desert. Hikaru buried her head back into his fur. It was soft and warm, dancing and immovable; it was hot and shapeless, writhing and unstoppable.

This was _hers_.

She closed her eyes and drifted away.


	5. endi(r) (the end)

**Notes1:** For maximum immersion, I would highly suggest listening to the _Morrowind_ or _Oblivion_ soundtracks (minus the battle themes). I think those particular tracks give this story the depth of legends brought about by the passage of time in the epilogue.

This fanfic didn't give me too much trouble, although I may in the near future probably go back and flesh out Chapter 2 a little more so it coincides more directly with the conversation Fuu and Windham were supposed to have that's alluded to. It's meant to be a short piece that packs just enough (liberal headcanon) lore into it than worldbuilding in longer fanfic pieces like the _First Impressions_ and _Heart of Fire, Soul of Calamity_ series. I've had fun for it, for what time I've spent on it, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

My plans now are to finish up the manga, the anime, check out the OVA and finish watching the Saturn/SNES gameplay vids on YouTube. I have an idea for a Dark Souls-inspired MKR2!AU epic (the title's a toss-up between _The Mountain Wakes_ and _This Mountain Will Fall_ ), but that needs planning (between the other stories I work on, as well as an original story I'm writing to independently publish on the side) so for the time being I'll settle for oneshots and go from there.

* * *

 **v.  
** **endi(r) (the end)**

Hikaru stirred very little, but she made no move to waken, and that was well and fine for Mokona; Rayearth was as gentle and fierce as the elements of the wild, and this same was also applied to Selece and Windham. They roamed the dreamtime as their sapient loci spread throughout the Realm and inhabited the warmth of the sands, the cold of the dark depths, the weightless chill of the sky and the stars beyond the stratosphere where the Roads dare not touch; and there they lingered, until such a time when the Wheel spun once more.

The Wheel, guided by principle and happenstance.

The Wheel, woven with stars and patched with darkness—designated Void, repaired by designation Chaos.

The Wheel, the Foundation of the Sphere, the Hub to the Pillar's Axle.

Mokona hopped down the length of the bed, went across it past their feet, and onto the floor. He reached the corner of the wall, bounced up onto a chair, and leaped off it to grapple the windowsill. He hoisted himself up and gazed at the stars, at the night that was still so young.

The time would come yet for the girls to grow into their own, the time when they would be battered, suffered, and threatened to succumb and be wilted; and then—then, Mokona hoped, knew, then they would flourish, spring anew as the first flower beneath the melting snows at winter's end, bring brightness to the dull, dead gloom.

His ears twitched, flexed, at the night sounds. Mokona turned his head this way and that, listening for them. The trilling of the birds in their nests, calling for one another; the scampering of the cape foxes in the brush; the binaural stridulating of grasshoppers. This is what should be, he thought. This is how it's supposed to be. Yet the Pillar is breaking, will break the longer the Princess Emeraud is imprisoned and Zagato casts his net more and more with each passing day.

He will draw them in and ensnare them in his grasp.

He would dare to think to plunge Cephiro into eternal darkness by the last spark of his life…his last, undying will and testament.

No one will have her. The Knights of Prophecy and Doom will not take her from him.

Mokona turned around and stared at the girls. His smile dimmed. Peace, he knew, was not built on ignorance; only those that would be left in the dark could be given that fate, for if they were to know just how Cephiro came to be as it is now…and why it must fall to outsiders beyond the Veil of Void and Chaos to do what they could not….

He shook his head. They would know…eventually. Not now and not later. They would know in the end. The very end, he amended, when they had no choice but commit to mercy, for what other way could this crisis end?

Resolute in his charge, Mokona put on his smile again and jumped off the windowsill. There he climbed back onto bed, made a few rotations at a spot by their feet, and plopped down in a ball of fluff made bright by the moonlight.

When the Knights awoke, morning had arrived in dew-laden glory. Their feet squelched in the grass as they stepped outside to stretch, having broken fast and ready to start the day with the continuation of their journey. The sun was shining, the sky whitened by dawnlight, the birds were out in full force, tweeting and twitting; there were squirrels chattering in the trees and bouncing from branch to branch. There were hawks hanging high and lazy far away, seemingly unmoving where their shadows must surely stretch long and true along the hard, tough earth of the moors.

Mokona breathed in deep the air, and released it in a torrent of happy "Puu puu! Puu puu! Puupuupuu puu puu!"s

"Oh, I know!" said Hikaru, and stretched her arms above her head again—so high she was tilting back on her heels, and relished in the way her joints popped. "It's so nice outside! I feel like today is going to be a great day!"

"If the weather stays like this, then we're bound to find the Spring of Eterna for sure," said Umi.

"It's still early, though," said Fuu. "Perhaps if we start now, we might be able to reach it before Zagato and his lackeys do."

Umi shivered. "I can't imagine what it'd be like if he got his grubby hands on the escudo before we did! You don't think…?"

Fuu shook her head. "No, I don't think so, but there should be no doubt he'll be trying to claim it for himself. We don't know if he has a pharle in his ranks, so it would do us good to take advantage of the time we have now and get moving, preferably as soon as possible."

"That's if he isn't already two steps ahead of us!"

"Yes, there is that. We won't know for sure until we get there."

"Zagato won't get the escudo, and he won't get to the Rune Gods." Hikaru came forward, walked between them, and pointed a finger straight ahead—onto the path where the Spring of Eterna lay. "Because we know where to find them: Windham, Selece, and Rayearth."

Umi and Fuu started. "Eh? Hikaru, how do you know their names?" the former asked, incredulously.

Hikaru blinked. "I dreamed of them." Realization lit her face, and then: "Wait. Did you dream of them, too?"

"I dreamed of Windham," said Fuu. "He was a massive bird who had come down from a tree to greet me, and we spoke long into the night about the Quest we are to undertake." She paused to tap a finger to her chin. "Or…was it during the day? I can't quite remember…except that I was flying with him, I think. Or perhaps into the clouds where we could see the stars."

"Well it sounds to me like he didn't try to eat you!" Umi exclaimed. "In my dream, Selece came out of the sea as a giant dragon with dozens of dragonflies all around him. I thought for sure he was going to have me breakfast, lunch, dinner, _and_ desert!" She coughed lightly. "I mean, how was _I_ supposed to know the dragonflies were a part of him? I was stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere! A girl oughta defend herself from even the smallest things!" She had put her arms akimbo and stuck her head up in the air, nodding sagely—and vigorously.

"Heavens, no! Why on Earth would a god try to eat someone like me? Or you, for that matter?"

"You just never know with gods. We could have been slim pickings for them!"

Fuu smiled cheekily. "And yet, here you are. I guess Selece wasn't hungry, after all."

"Nor Windham!"

"Nor Windham," Fuu agreed. Then, getting back on track, "Did Lord Selece take you somewhere?"

"Take me…? You know what, he did. I…think he and I swam in the ocean." Umi turned to stare at the moorlands, her expression thoughtful. "We went in deep. Very deep. He told me about the Task, and the Quest, and showed me all the fish and creatures that live and die beneath the surface of the earth, and how the turn of the Wheel is always perpetuated. To provide and sustain." She looked at Fuu. "Did Windham show you the same thing?"

Fuu mulled it over, then nodded. "I think so. We flew through the sky, him and I, into all sorts of trees. He said it would be a long, hard journey fraught with many dangers. He showed me the pigeons and the doves in the forests, the parrots and the macaws in the rainforests, the ducks and the geese in the rivers and the gulls and the pelicans in the sea, the hawks and the vultures in the mountains. He showed me the eggs in their nests on the outcrops and in the bushes, and we watched as they hatched and new life was brought into the world. It's as Lord Selece told you, Umi; it's a cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy, in that people and beasts are bound to become what they most fear…but also become what they desire, not by providence but by convenience and coincidence. It was quite the interesting talk."

"Well, I'll say!" said Umi. "That's the kind of thing you don't really get into until you're, like, in college! But I suppose we learn as we go, in bits and pieces. What about you, Hikaru?" she asked, turning to the girl, and was inwardly amused to see the smallest of their band had been rapt with attention. "I dreamed of Selece, and Fuu dreamed of Windham. So that means you dreamed of Rayearth, right?"

"I did! He was a big wolf, three times the size of my Hikari! We got to cuddle in the desert."

Umi laughed. "That's so like you, Hikaru!"

"You certainly have your way with animals," said Fuu. "Even if that one happens to be a god!"

"Oh, I know! But the funny thing is, he was supposed to be a lion. That's his…oh, what did he call it?" Hikaru scratched her head, and then snapped her fingers. "Right! His raiment! But he's the only one who can change it at will, and he looked into my heart, so he turned into a wolf just for me. I kind of wish he stuck around as a lion, though; I had almost been tempted to call him Aslan."

"Why am I not surprised you'd read _The Chronicles of Narnia_?" Umi surmised.

"Because every good story needs a hero…and if that hero has an animal companion, then all the more reason for me to read it! But wolves are just as lovely, but they certainly don't have horns on their heads!"

"Indeed," said Fuu, nodding. "This is Cephiro, after all, and the Machines are gods. I bet if they wanted to, Lords Selece and Windham could change their forms, as well."

"But did Rayearth say anything to you?" Umi asked. "Did he show you around the desert?"

"He did, after a while," said Hikaru. "He told me to follow and I went wherever he went, but we didn't talk so much after that. We kind of did that when we were sitting at the hilltop."

"What did he say?" they asked her.

So Hikaru told them what Rayearth had told her, in the dimension between realities, the dreamwalk they would not become aware of for a very long time, well after the fall of the Lady Debonair: that there is never a promise in prophecy, that what is written could be ignored, broken, and rebuilt ad infinitum until all that remains are dust and ashes of what-could-have-been, not what-should-have-been. She told them how he said he did not say to her that they would fail in their Quest, though the possibility was there, but it was within his prerogative, his standard operating procedures, to ensure Cephiro's existence by freeing the Princess Emeraude from her prison and cast down Zagato from his high perch. She told them how he said they would become heroes and be remembered throughout the ages.

Then Hikaru asked them the question that Rayearth asked her, and would ask her again in the future when all was said and done. The same question, she found some part of her dreaded, that nagged at the back of her mind (and would nag ever after, until she and Umi and Fuu were summoned again to close off the Roads to Cephiro) like a termite to wood. "Do you feel like heroes, yet?"

"A hero?" Umi echoed, and exchanged curious glances with Fuu. "I don't know. It's a little too soon to be calling ourselves that, don'tcha think?"

"Yes, I think so, too," said Fuu. "The journey's only just begun. But maybe…after a while…maybe we will feel like heroes. No, we will become heroes. Who will, when no one else can stand up to Zagato and not be beaten down? That's why we were summoned here."

"If we can't save Cephiro, then no one can," said Umi. "We're Princess Emeraude's last resort. We can't fail."

"We can do this," said Hikaru, more steadfast than ever before. "I know we can. Why else would the Rune Gods come to us? They want us to waken them. They want to help us…but we have to get stronger. We have to get smarter. We have to learn the lay of the land and the way of the world together. The more we know, the more we can put that knowledge to good use and fulfill the prophecy as it's meant to be."

"As it's meant to be?" Umi asked.

"What's that, Hikaru?" asked Fuu.

Hikaru grinned. "Because we want to save Princess Emeraude, restore the Pillar, and save Cephiro. Besides, we have Mokona to show us the way! Don't you, Mokona?"

Mokona nodded excitedly. "Puu puu! Puu puu!"

"Well, I sure hope he knows where he's going!" said Umi. "I would hate to have the world end because we lost track of time and wound up getting lost again, like we did in the Forest of Silence."

"I have much faith in Sir Mokona's ability to navigate labyrinths and large spaces," said Fuu. "There's a lot more to him than meets the eye."

"I hope there's a lot more to him period!" But Umi was smiling, and confident in her posture. Seeing her with Fuu had never made Hikaru feel so sure of the success of their Quest than she did in her life until now. Her head was light and her heart was gladdened to be part of this sisterhood.

"You've got this, Mokona!" said Hikaru. "We're going to do by right and become the heroes Cephiro needs!"

"Puu puu! Puu puu puu!" said Mokona, and with that announcement he hopped away, toward the moorlands.

* * *

Here is where the narrative of the Knights of Prophecy and the Call of the Wild comes to an end, although as we all know it did not mean the end of their Journey. Theirs was a Quest that had been repeated twice prior in the Wheel and would have continued evermore were it not for the love shared between the Princess Emeraude and Zagato the Last High Priest, a love which shattered the Pillar and ended the era of foundation and structural integrity that had until the War of the Roads supported the Realm of Cephiro since the Enclosure of the Sphere.

Ah, but this is a world enforced by will, and what better foundation there is to support the structural integrity of the world than willpower, the heart's resolve, and the human spirit? That is the gift the Knights of Prophecy have given us. To have preserved the Pillar as it had been in its primary state would have promised another cycle of suffering, a phoenix rising among the ashes that would find no rest even in the brevity of death.

…Yes, you are right. A phoenix represents renewal, as well…but for how long can an immortal being last under pain and duress with each redressing of physical and mental formation? How much can a dragon endure the pressures of the sea before his bones grow weary of circling the Axle? How long can a lion, a wolf, the genius of pervading thought, wander before he stops and says aloud 'I have had enough, there must be another, better alternative'? For even gods, for all their wisdom and infinite energy, need their rest; I would guess going in circles over and over for eternity would prove just as boring, especially when the Pillar was being endlessly rebuilt on top of itself!

…Do I think the Pillar was always meant to fail by design? Or are you saying it was a choice the Knights swore and were bound to that was prophesized to sweep away the dust of one age into Chaos and usher in the new era that which we are now sustaining? Curious you should mention that, for Lord Rayearth is alleged to have said there is no guarantee in prophecy. Prophecies in the theological sense make the assumption that the conditions must be fulfilled, that they must be carried out forthwith with little regard to the consequences save in passing mention. Prophecies are religious mandates, they would say. They must be followed lest doom—doom, and not the Three-Upon-Making—wrest us off the Wheel before it can be spun!

…What do I think? Of prophecies? Well, for one, you are certainly entitled to your opinion; as much as the Rune Gods are the architects of Cephiro, they are not the omnipresent, omniscient entities dogmatic adherents espouse so fervently. From what I gathered from my many readings of the old texts, I think the Knights had made a good point in regarding the absolute surety in fulfilling prophecy and self-refuting idea to the letter. You're aware of the adage 'you won't know until you try', and that is what they did to the very end, though they did not know until that moment where they struck down Princess Emeraude her death would result in the destruction of the Pillar and the Opening of the Roads. They did not know they were to become Harbingers of Doom. The Final Doom, some would say…and still hold today; but you won't hear them say that out in the open. Ha ha ha ha. No sir, no ma'am. Maybe some seven thousand years ago you would have, when they broke the last of the Rotted Axle and kept the Sphere open to all Roads after the War. Not many people were happy to know their saviors had been drawn to upend the natural order. Listen to me, some of these people wanted them _executed_ ; they would rather take matters into their own hands than have some young outlanders disrupt their lives to the point it nearly ended the world.

Ha ha ha ha…but do you really think that would've worked? Do you _really_ think killing Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu for putting an end to Emeraude's suffering would have helped? I'll tell you what my teacher told me, and what her teacher told her: You can destroy the Pillar but you can't destroy the Wheel. They are beyond the Veil but they are just as much a part of the cycle as you and I. You killed them in Cephiro, they would have returned to the Void and become Chaos. They would have reincarnated there—not on Earth, as their Realm is called. The Wheel would be spun, they would spit out from the Spaces In-Between like stars and become Manifest. And they would return, you see; they would come back, and they would be forged in the fire and war people so desperately loathed and craved from the bottom of their hearts. The Rune Gods don't forget their Fated Ones, and they don't forget the sins they've committed in their mantle.

But that's the thing: there can be no miracle without sin. Destroying the Pillar was a bad thing; that's like having spent hours getting that house of cards you worked on get knocked over by a breath of wind! That Pillar has been with us for millennia! And what did it give us? What did it give us other than rebirth and decay? The human mind is only as strong as a person's heart. We're not infallible. We can endure, but we can break. We can fix ourselves up, but we can break down again—over and over, until there's nothing left but the shell of the person that was. We are creatures driven on desire, our lust and greed our blood and marrow. What we want, we want for ourselves; those that share are cleaving themselves of that nature. It's a paradox, but it's a paradox that also sustains us. It is the self-perpetuating cycle the Knights have served to remind us as part of their atonement. This is the gift they wanted to keep on giving, to prove to us that we can provide without the dependence of the Pillar system, and that is the gift they have left behind when they vanished from Cephiro.

That's what Lantis said when he broke the news. He wanted to spread their teachings hereafter. He didn't think what they did was sinful (in the religious context) or wrong (in the moral context). In the end, he believed they did what had to be done…not because a prophecy mandated it should be so. Not because everyone they met told them they had to because it was their duty.

They did what they did because they wanted to. They wanted to free Emeraude from her misery, and when they did they wanted to stop the fighting that would have been instigated by Lady Debonair and negotiate the terms and conditions lay down in the Highway Concord. Because they desired to set things right for Cephiro.

And see what that's brought us: the rise in arcane institutions and the creation of druidism, which saw peak membership in animism and psychonautics, as well as the study of oneirology and transcendental communion (or, to simply put, astral projection). Of course, it's also brought an uptick in religious intolerance among certain religious radicals regarding what they consider historical forums such as these to be heretical and sacrilegious, claiming we are 'undeserving' of the blessings the Three-Upon-Making have bestowed the Realm. Oh, and let's not forget the deputized mage hunters from…oh, I don't know off the top of my head, some of the Commissionaries are sending out, thinking we're getting too big for our britches to go unsupervised. Then there are the uptick of assaults on the dreamwalk crèches by the nox-crawlers, headbutting between conservationists and Autozam mech barons surrounding the Old Yorn ruins and the Mount Pillory sites….

Anyway, before I wander too much off topic (and render the rest of you asleep…yes, I can tell! I, too, can sleep with my eyes open!), this is Balance. There is good and evil, right and wrong. It has been wrought once before, has been wrought, and will continue to be wrought again. It will be established no matter the outcome.

But you like living, don't you? Of course you do! You want to live long and prosper until you're my age, don't you? I'm much older than you take me for; don't let these dashing looks fool you! Ha ha, ha ha.

Well. That all depends on how you live your life. I can't guarantee it'll always work out in your favor, but that is the beauty of choice, is it not? This is what the Knights would want you to do. That's not prophecy; it's all a matter of coincidence and happenstance, but I won't begrudge you if you think otherwise.

What time does this class end? Oh, a quarter to already? Okay then. We'll wrap this up for today. Now for Midweek, I want you to read chapter five in your textbook, 'The Spring of Eterna, and the Vivisection of the Crossing of the Planes'. This plays a role in further cementing the arcane, metaphysical goals the Convocation of the One were still trying to establish, among other prominent and lesser known draumir circles. Also do some research on Master Pharle Presea's dissertations on escudo and Will-bending; we'll be going over that. There are some interesting methods she tried to pass on to those who sought her training….


End file.
